Bubur Ketan Hitam is a black glutinous rice porridge originating from Indonesia. It’s often eating as a snack or a sweet breakfast, but can even be eaten for lunch or dinner! Made with glutinous black rice, gula jawa, pandan, and coconut milk – it’s guaranteed to take rice pudding as you know it to a whole new level. Bubur Ketan Hitam can be seen as Bubur Ayam’s (chicken congee) sweet counterpart. I like it best when paired with mango, but you can also eat it plain, or add other fresh fruits like banana, lychee, or papaya! Let’s get to it.
Bubur Ketan Hitam (Black Rice Pudding)
Bubur Ketan Hitam is an Indonesian rice porridge made with black sticky rice, gula jawa, pandan, and coconut milk. This is a dish that can be at any time of the day; for breakfast, as a snack, or even dinner!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup black glutinous rice
- 6 cups water
- 3 pandan leaves, knotted
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2-4 tablespoons of gula jawa (palm sugar), I used 3/4 of a hardened round
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
- 1 mango, sliced
Instructions
- This is an optional but recommended step: Soak your rice for at least three hours, or preferably overnight. Drain and rinse well.
- If you decide not to soak your rice, rinse it very well.
- Add the rice, water, knotted pandan leaves, and salt to a pan and bring to a boil. Let the rice gently boil at medium-high heat for about 70-80 minutes until it reaches a porridge consistency. You can adjust the time to your liking, depending on how soft you want the rice to be. This will also depend on whether you’ve soaked your rice beforehand.
- Towards the end of cooking time, remove the knotted pandan leaves and add the gula jawa. Stir it until the gula jawa has completely dissolved into the porridge.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut milk and vanilla.
- Your rice porridge is now ready to serve. Ladle some porridge into a bowl and pour a little bit of the coconut milk over the top. This porridge is great eaten both warm or chilled.
- Slice the mango lengthways into thin strips, or cubes if you prefer it that way, and garnish as desired.
Notes
- This porridge can also be made with brown rice, in this case you might need to reduce the cooking time.
- If you don’t have gula jawa, you can use coconut sugar or maple syrup instead.
- This porridge can also be eaten plain, or with different types of tropical fruit like papaya, banana, or lychees.
